‘Responsible’ gas development
gets put to the test in northern New Mexico

RATON, New Mexico — It’s a bright, cool day in late
March on Vermejo Park Ranch, media mogul Ted Turner’s Rhode
Island-sized chunk of wild real estate in northern New Mexico, and
Gus Holm, the ranch’s geologist, is playing "find the gas
well" with a visitor.

"There’s one in that clump of
trees, just to the right of the lake," he says, pointing to a spot
in the valley far below.

After a few minutes of scanning
and squinting, a green pump materializes among the ponderosa pines.
To the east, about a half-mile away, a dirt road leads the
discriminating eye to another well pad, tucked into a hillside. To
the northwest, a small herd of bison — reintroduced to the
ranch by Turner a few years ago — grazes languidly as a well
pumps natural gas nearby.

To Holm, this is the picture of
ecologically sustainable energy development. For the past five
years, Texas-based El Paso Corp. has developed the ranch’s
considerable reserves of coalbed methane, a type of natural gas
found in coal seams, under a strict set of rules laid down by
Turner and his staff of environmental specialists.

Those
rules, which include limiting development to four wells per square
mile, requiring reinjection of water pumped out of the ground, and
stipulating that anything industrial be painted "juniper green" and
hidden among the pines whenever possible, have made Vermejo Park
Ranch the energy industry’s poster child for "clean"
development.

In New Mexico, where decades of conventional
oil and gas development have left a heavy mark on places such as
Lovington and Carlsbad, and where storms of controversy are
touching down over untapped reserves at Otero Mesa, the Vermejo
operation is taking on an increasingly high profile (HCN, 3/29/04:
New Mexicans take a stand against oil and gas). Bob Gallagher,
president of the New Mexico Oil and Gas Association, cites Vermejo
in arguing that natural gas exploration on Otero Mesa can be done
in an environmentally sensitive way. But the true test of whether
CBM development can be done responsibly on public lands may come in
a brand-new battle over energy development right next door to
Vermejo, on the Carson National Forest’s Valle Vidal.

Low-impact ideal?

When Turner bought
the ranch from Pennzoil in 1982, he set the responsible-development
guidelines for the company, which kept the rights to the minerals
underneath. Although mineral rights owners can typically develop
their resources as they wish, Pennzoil’s desire to sell the
land to Turner gave him some leverage to set the ground rules. El
Paso inherited Turner’s agreement with Pennzoil when it
bought the mineral rights in the late 1990s.

According to
Rich Larson, the ranch’s environmental manager, the most
ecologically sensitive areas of the ranch are off-limits to
drilling. Vermejo Ranch is big enough to accommodate bison herds,
conservation areas, elk-hunting grounds, and CBM "pods" within its
far-flung borders, he says. Pipelines are buried underground, and
are placed alongside roads whenever possible to minimize
disturbance.

Carl Lakey, manager of El Paso Corp.’s
operation on Vermejo Park Ranch, says he’s proud of the work
his company has done on the ranch. El Paso has gained a reputation
for low-impact energy development, and it has no intention of
tarnishing its halo by launching a destructive operation in the
Valle Vidal, he adds. "We have a track record that shows we can do
this responsibly," says Lakey.

The gas reserve
next door

Buoyed by the returns on its Vermejo
investment — 430 wells strong, and growing — El Paso
has submitted a proposal with the Forest Service to explore 40,000
acres on the eastern side of the 100,000-acre Valle Vidal, just on
the other side of the ridge from Vermejo Park Ranch.

At
about the same time it sold Vermejo to Turner, oil company Pennzoil
donated the Valle to the Forest Service. The Forest Service
indicated then that it would manage the new "multiple use area"
primarily for wildlife. Among its other attractions, the valley is
home to the largest elk herd in the state, attracting hunters
nationwide (HCN, 3/1/04: Oil and gas drilling could oust elk
– and Boy Scouts).

A long line of critics,
including anglers, local environmental groups, hunters and
residents, say CBM development would undermine the intent of the
1982 deal and leave energy development as the dominant use of the
area. They’re concerned that development will crowd out the
elk herd, which winters in the Valle, as well as mountain lion,
wild turkey and other wildlife, and turn the popular recreation
spot into an industrial zone.

"They’ll create this
spiderweb of wells connected by roads that will really change the
face of the Valle Vidal forever," says Stuart Wilde, an ecologist
and outfitter with Wild Earth Llama Adventures, which operates in
the Valle Vidal.

Ben Romero, spokesman for Carson
National Forest, says that if El Paso does drill in the Valle
Vidal, the Forest Service will look to the Carson’s northern
border for lessons on how to balance development with resource
protection. "Of course, it’s a whole lot easier for Ted
Turner — he can state what kinds of rules he wants the
company to operate under. But we could certainly use a lot of his
techniques," he says. "We could look to the other side of the fence
to determine how to do those measures on our side."

Now,
the Forest Service is mulling over the first of a series of studies
on the feasibility of allowing El Paso to explore the area’s
CBM resources, and the potential impacts of development. If the
proposal goes forward, the Forest Service will need to conduct an
environmental impact statement and gather public comment.

The author is a freelance writer living in Santa
Fe.

This story was funded by a grant from the
McCune Charitable Foundation, based in Santa Fe, New Mexico.